Installing ArchivesSpace on OpenSUSE Latest

This tutorial will guide you through the process of installing ArchivesSpace on OpenSUSE Latest. ArchivesSpace is an open source archives management system that is designed to support the work of archivists and other professionals who are responsible for managing archival collections.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding with the installation, make sure that your system meets the following requirements:

  • OpenSUSE Latest is installed and up to date.
  • Java 8 or higher is installed.
  • MySQL or PostgreSQL is installed and configured.

Step 1: Install Required Packages

ArchivesSpace requires several packages to be installed on your system. You can easily install them using the following command:

sudo zypper install git wget unzip findutils sqlite3 mysql mysql-client postgresql postgresql-client

Step 2: Download ArchivesSpace

Download the latest version of ArchivesSpace from the official website. You can use the following command to download the file:

wget https://github.com/archivesspace/archivesspace/releases/download/v2.8.1/archivesspace-v2.8.1.zip

Step 3: Extract ArchivesSpace

Extract the downloaded file to the desired location on your system using the following command:

unzip archivesspace-v2.8.1.zip

Step 4: Setting up MySQL or PostgreSQL

ArchivesSpace requires a MySQL or PostgreSQL database to store its data. Follow the steps below to set up the database:

MySQL

  • Log in to MySQL using the following command:
mysql -u root -p
  • Create a new user and database for ArchivesSpace:
CREATE USER 'archivesspace'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
CREATE DATABASE `archivesspace_db` DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `archivesspace_db`.* TO 'archivesspace'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
  • Exit MySQL using the following command:
exit

PostgreSQL

  • Log in to PostgreSQL using the following command:
sudo -u postgres psql
  • Create a new user and database for ArchivesSpace:
CREATE USER archivesspace WITH PASSWORD 'password';
CREATE DATABASE archivesspace_db OWNER archivesspace;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE archivesspace_db TO archivesspace;
  • Exit PostgreSQL using the following command:
\q

Step 5: Configure ArchivesSpace

Navigate to the ArchivesSpace directory using the following command:

cd archivesspace

Copy the sample configuration file and rename it according to your database type:

MySQL

cp config/config-example.yml config/config-mySQL.yml

PostgreSQL

cp config/config-example.yml config/config-postgres.yml

Edit the configuration file using your preferred text editor:

nano config/config-mySQL.yml

or

nano config/config-postgres.yml

Make the following changes:

  • Set the backend_url parameter to the appropriate connection string for your database.

MySQL

backend_url: "jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/archivesspace_db?user=archivesspace&password=password&useUnicode=true&characterEncoding=UTF-8&characterSetResults=utf8mb4&useSSL=false&serverTimezone=UTC&useJDBCCompliantTimezoneShift=true&useLegacyDatetimeCode=false"

PostgreSQL

backend_url: "jdbc:postgresql://localhost/archivesspace_db?user=archivesspace&password=password&ssl=false"

Step 6: Start ArchivesSpace

You can start ArchivesSpace using the following command:

./archivesspace.sh start

This will start the ArchivesSpace application as a background process.

You can access the application by navigating to http://localhost:8080 in your web browser.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully installed and started ArchivesSpace on OpenSUSE Latest. You can now begin using the application to manage your archival collections.